A large number of Jews crossed the continent or came by boats from various parts of the world, along with the heavy tide of travel towards the Pacific Coast, when the discoveries of gold in California in 1849 began to attract great multitudes. There was a _minyan_ in San Francisco on Yom Kippur of that year in a tent owned by Louis Franklin. Among those who participated were H. Joseph and Joel Noah, a brother of Mordecai M. Noah. The organization of the Jewish community was completed between July and October of the following year, when two congregations came into existence about the same time. The Shearit Israel congregation, which comprised the Polish and English elements, was organized in August, 1850, under the leadership of Israel Solomons. The Germans and Americans united in the Congregation Emanuel, the name of whose president, Emanuel M. Berg, is signed on a contract dated September 1, 1850, for the renting of a room on Bush street, below Montgomery, as a place of worship. About a dozen “mining congregations” sprang up in as many different places in California in the following ten years; Sonora had a Hebrew Benevolent Society as early as 1851; Stockton, a Congregation Re’im Ahubim in 1853. In Los Angeles the founding of a benevolent society was brought about by Carvalho, a Sephardic Jew, who was a member of General Fremont’s expedition. Religious services were held there in 1852. In Nevada City a Hebrew Society was organized in 1855, which numbered twenty members about two years later. In Jackson a congregation was organized for the autumn holidays in 1856, and it erected the first synagogue in the mining districts. The building still stands, but it is used for other purposes, as the Jews have left the place long ago. Fiddletown, Grass Valley, Shasta, Folsom, Marysville and Jesu Maria all had temporary congregations which did not long survive the “gold fever.” (See “Jewish Encyclopedia,” s. v., California.) Sacramento is the only place in the state outside of San Francisco which has Jewish organizations――a congregation and two societies, which originated in this period.